For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice. –
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Another year! From what I’ve been hearing, others are excited as me to turn the page on 2023 and head on into 2024. Not sure what the new year will bring, and I don’t want to speculate. I’m just going to leave it alone but looking forward to the possibilities and a positive direction.

I’m participating in another online book club this year. The Literary Landmark Virtual Book Club, led by the Grant Cottage in Wilton, NY. Two newly published books on U.S. Grant are featured. Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction by Fergus M. Bordewich, and Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant by John Reeves.

At the top of my book stack are Michael Katz’s The Brothers Karamazov, Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell, Erskine Caldwell’s God’s Little Acre. I have to wrap-up Stephen Kieran’s, The Curiosity. I’m also lining up embroidery projects to work on in between reading.

New bookcases will soon be arriving at the store. One for the children’s room and one for the green room. One is to help me realize a vision of what I feel used bookstores should have. Then I think I’ll be all set. Well, maybe some wall shelving….

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is a day for celebrating. That’s the day I became a used bookstore owner. Otter Creek Used & Rare Books became Otter Creek Used Books and it was mine. Never once have I regretted the purchase. Never once have I had a day of regret. How lucky am I? Very.

I went from this on Main Street in a basement….

…to the Historic MarbleWorks.

I miss the large space of the Main Street location with the large window overlooking the street and the storage. But I love the MarbleWorks with the nooks and crannies and the many windows. No worries for parking. I’m on one floor. And the community within the MarbleWorks is unsurpassable.

I’ve been working on ‘increasing’ the space by adding bookshelves and bookcases. I have a customer who’s become the store’s official carpenter. Those who stated there was no way I could fit another bookcase have been in the store and didn’t notice the additions until I pointed them out. I’m excited to say two more will be added very soon. Let’s see if you notice them next time you are in.

I think I’ve kept my philosophy of running the store the same as I did in the early days. It’s all about the books. All about coziness. To feel comfortable and not be totally overwhelmed. I work very hard to keep the store fresh by adding (and maybe subtracting) books, adding displays, shuffling around collections so all can fit in nicely. The store is designed to poke around. See what book finds you.

Following the advice of a bookseller whom I greatly admire and one of the founders of the Vermont Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Ben Koenig, of The Country Bookshop, years ago stated that if you are going to have a sale make it fun. Everyone has fun when the books are half off. Great advice. So, Friday 11/24 and Saturday 11/25 all books will be half price! Come and have fun!

Spiritual truth, like good nuggets of psychedelic music, was at the margins, hidden in used bookstores and record shops. – Peter Bebergal, Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood

Winding down from a rather busy summer. I was not pleased with the cool temps and all of the rain. I feel cheated. Cheated out of hot, sunny days and muggy evenings. Those nights where the only comfort I can find is sitting on my front porch with a tall glass of ice water and reading a good novel. With all the rain the mosquitos discovered the porch. “HA! There you are!” I could just hear them.

I didn’t even start the ‘great summer read’. You know, those thick hard cover novels. In fact, I started books only to cast them aside to pick up another. I made myself finish a few. My reading count for the year is low. Thirteen books! So sad. Twelve books I’ve started. Ugh!

I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’m supposed to remember books I’ve read. As well as who wrote what book. What’s the great American novel? What is/are my favorite novels(s)? What do I recommend to help get someone back into reading. What are the books I have here in the store. Some days I can spit out titles and authors. And then there are days when I can’t even visualize the dust jacket of the asked for book. Ugh!

In spite of all or anything at all, owning a used bookstore is everything you can imagine and then some. I love it. All positive. Customers to all the books. Cleaning to sweeping. Covering torn dust jackets. Shelving. Walking the aisles to straighten them. Going through boxes as they enter the store. Talking with my book scouts and seeing what they brought in. Visiting homes to pick out titles. After sixteen years it is still exciting. Adventurous.

I’ve been taking a break from going through a box of vintage youth books. Sorting to those that are good to stay. Others to put outside for the sale. Setting aside those that need their dust jackets covered. Pricing and stacking for a working pile. Fill my arms and head into the Big Yellow Room for shelving.

The glow of appreciation a book lover showed as he left a Book Row shop clutching a volume he had found at last after a seemingly endless and quixotic quest was seen somewhere practically every day on Book Row. It’s a glow unlike any other, and the radiance could at times make even grouchy booksellers worried about the rent feel better for delivering a bit of happiness in a cloudy world. – Marvin Mondlin & Roy Meador, BOOK ROW: An Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade.

I know. I’ve gotten so bad at posting. To keep up with news, info, photos, daily life of all that’s OCUB. Well, it’s not easy doing everything, ya know. 😉

Summer is winding down and for the next few weeks store life slows a bit and gives me a chance to reevaluate, reorganize, and other re- that I can do before foliage season gets underway.

Inventory is always being added. Like today twenty-two boxes arrived. Do I have room? Who knows. But it’s a used bookstore, right? Boxes of books is to be expected. As long as there’s room to walk around. Just don’t come behind the desk. Positively no room. Just barely standing room for me.

This is my first post using my iPhone. Kinda cool. And I just figured out how to add photos.

Hey! Otter Creek Used Books is having a 50% sale Friday July 14 and Saturday July 15. All books half off. Hope to see you!

My behavior is nonetheless, deplorable. Unfortunately, I’m quite prone to such bouts of deplorability–take for instance, my fondness for reading books at the dinner table. – Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire

For some time, I’ve been heading out just about once a week after I close the store to enjoy a nice dinner with a book – Dinner and a Book. It serves as some quiet time to enjoy the meal and whatever book I am currently reading. From a sit-down dinner to a picnic, or eating in my car, to take-out.

It all started as a form of self-care. My life has turned upside down and I needed to find a space in it for me. It gives me something to look forward to. I choose the restaurant based on my mood. Or sometimes on the book I’m reading at the time. England-based I go for either a good curry or fish & chip, right?

I love reading. I love good food. I love going out to dinner. And I don’t mind going by myself. It’s not a lonely venture. Can one actually be alone while reading a book?

Some have asked to join me to which I answer with of course but you will have to bring a book.

I must say, interesting the reactions I receive from a host or hostess. There was one local restaurant as soon as she saw I was carrying a book she exclaimed that she knew just where to seat me where I wouldn’t be distracted and have great lighting. Wow! She got it. One establishment when I asked for a bottled condiment, he slid it across the table where it hit my book. I gave him the ‘mother stare’. All in all, Middlebury offers great spaces to read and I’m figuring out the best tables with adequate lighting.

Life as a used bookstore owner is going fine. OCUB has been busy. Boxes of books are constantly coming in. Arranging and rearranging is ongoing to fit the books on the shelves. Shuffling shelves is continuous. Stacks of books are patiently waiting to have their jackets covered is ever-growing. I get the stack down only to add to it.

Beckett has gone off to his summer job but has promised to return in the fall. Gavin will be here for the summer. Also a Midd College student. Henry will be here again in a few weeks to pitch in as well as a pair of high school students. Yes, I’m looking forward to all the much needed help. It’ll be nice not having to do everything.

Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

My father was often impatient during March, waiting for winter to end, the cold to ease, the sun to reappear. March was an unpredictable month, when it was never clear what might happen. Warm days raised hopes until ice and grey skies shut over the town again. – Tracy Chevalier, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

Another February is behind us and that’s fine with me. March brings more sun, less snow (finger’s crossed), warmer temps, and thoughts of spring right around the corner. All good things.

The I Hate February Sale was a lot of fun this year. Many customers came in inquiring if I still hated February. Of course, I do! Many a bag or box went out of the store and now I find myself filling holes on many shelves. Which is a bookseller’s dream, of course. You know, emptying out boxes and getting those books up on the shelves.

A number of U.S. history, including bios of U.S. presidents, have come into the store and are slowly making their way onto the shelves. Music, art, children’s books and well, everything in between. No rest for the wicked. Or for a used bookstore lady.

Earthquakes mean March.
The dragon will move,
and the earth will open like a wound.
There will be great rain or snow
so save some coal for your uncle.
The sun of this month cures all.
Therefore, old women say:
Let the sun of March shine on my daughter,
but let the sun of February shine on my daughter-in-law.
However, if you go to a party
dressed as the anti-Christ
you will be frozen to death by morning.
– Anne Sexton THE SERMON OF THE TWELVE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The bookstore was a parking lot for used graveyards. Thousands of graveyards were parked in rows like cars. Most of the books were out of print, and no one wanted to read them anymore and the people who had read the books had died or forgotten about them, but through the organic process of music the books had become virgins again. – Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America

…a well-worn book also has its pleasures, the soft caress and give of the paper’s edges, the comfort, like an old shawl, of an oft-read story. – Lewis Buzbee, The Haunting of Charles Dicken

Here I am. Sitting in my overloaded bookstore. Loaded down with books. Boxes to empty, sort, clean, and price. Then shelve. Dust jackets to cover. But I need to take a break and contemplate the years. This experience. The experience of being a used bookstore owner.

I feel so lucky. Lucky to decide to purchase the store and bring new life to it. Lucky to open the door each day, turn on lights, sweep floors, polish windows, dust off books. Decorating windows, tops of bookcases, shuffling shelves around. Selecting background music. Creating an atmosphere of coziness. Somewhat organized. Somewhat not. Cluttered. But hopefully not too much.

We are much more likely to be drawn to a messy bookstore than a neat one because the mess signifies vitality. Clutter — orderly clutter, if possible — is what we expect. – Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

Owning a used bookstore is everything you think it would be. Should be. But it’s so much more. There is the realization that all the books actually belong to you. To you! You can claim each and every book if you want. But, of course, you don’t because how are you going to keep the store going? So, you have to be able to let go. And know that a sold book is going to a good home. To be reread. Or even sit prettily on a bookshelf.

It is clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying, and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down. – Agatha Christie, The Clocks

The first weekend owning the store, I cleaned the top floor: sweeping, tearing apart bookcases, freeing the sunbaked books. I wanted to make an impression on other Main Street businesses to let them know there was a new owner. This happened in the original location. The building was demolished a number of years ago for the work on the railroad tracks and tunnel. There is a small park and labyrinth in the location now.

I started using a child’s vintage paint easel boasting a literary quote to help draw people in. Placed on the large patio in front of the store. Over a span of time, I painted, rearranged, removed bookcases to create room and have a clean front and back entrance for air flow. I even went so far as to feng shui the store. Twice. The first experience called for ringing bells. I thought my bell was broken as not a sound was made. But the second time around, I started to hear it. The third time it was ringing quite clearly. Isn’t that interesting! And yea, there were ghosts there. Believe what you want.

One day pulling up to the Main Street building I noted people with clipboards in front of the store. Looked like a meeting of VTrans, and VT Railway representatives. I knew a few from various meetings I attended while working at the Addison County Chamber of Commerce. They gave me the word. The situation was dire, and maybe I should be looking at another location. I wanted to be established before the work began and I’m so glad I did. When I walked through my current location for the first time, I knew this was the perfect place to move the store to. It’s not Main Street but there is parking. No stairs. Huge windows. And a great MW community.

One must remember it is pretty much me in the store but throughout the years I have had short-term helpers: Wilder, Roy, Helen, Jennifer, Nellie, Carrie, Henry, Beckett, and, of course, Hannah. Their assistance has been enthusiastic and valued by me. I greatly appreciated their help and input. There’s a dedicated James Joyce section thanks to Helen. Remember when Jennifer organized cookbooks by their colored spines? Carrie, so instrumental in running the shop while I was having leg issues and then hip replacement. She held the store together.

The customers have been the best. So many have become friends. Stopping in to check on me. Bring me tokens, smiles, jokes, food to books. To just talk or to check on what’s new on shelves. Catching up on families. Books read. Books to read. Just being friends. Even buying books!

My style of running the used bookstore is based on what I would have liked to have found in NYC along Book Row. I read the book, Book Row: An Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade by Marvin Mondlin and Roy Meador. Books were everything to the owners or managers of the spaces they held. Customers would walk into one of the shops and wonder what they’d find. That’s what I want here. I had a desire to stand out from other shops. Everyone’s online because they feel they have to. Would I be brave enough to go against the norm? Almost. I posted about three hundred or so books, but it was because I felt I had to. Not because I wanted to. Sure, I’ve had online sales but what’s the connection to the buyer? I could post a note to them. Include a Vermont postcard. Wrap the book in brown paper and tie it up with string or ribbon. Sometimes I added a small piece of embroidery and taped it to the wrapped book.

It was a very odd concept – that you could become friends with someone simply by examining their bookshelves – but nevertheless, Zoe believed it fervently. – Jenny Colgan, The Bookshop on the Shore.

I don’t know what the future will hold for me or the bookstore, but I anticipate many more years gracing the MarbleWorks community. And when the time is right another soul will venture to keep the store alive because books are here to stay. And will always be in style.

Thank you all for indulging me to live the life of a used bookstore lady. A life I had no idea I needed to be but here I am sixteen years later.

I took my time, running my fingers along the spines of books, stopping to pull a title from the shelf and inspect it. A sense of well-being flowed through me as I circled the ground floor. It was better than meditation or a new pair of shoes- or even chocolate. My life was a disaster, but there were still books. Lots and lots of books. A refuge. A solace. Each one offering the possibility of a new beginning. – Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life